


Lions

by Yen



Series: Game of Thrones Alternatives [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Fix-It, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 10:46:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18915382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yen/pseuds/Yen
Summary: Cersei gasped, heart pounding at how narrow their escape had been.It had been so close. But they'd made it.





	Lions

"Jaime," Cersei whispered, her voice breaking. Dust swirled up around her feet with each step as she stumbled her way across the map room towards her twin. Her vision blurring with tears, she reached out blindly for him, and he for her. All her hatred and grievances towards him in the past months seemed to have blown away in an instant, like ashes in the wind. “Y - you came."

"I'm here, sister." Jaime's voice was raspy and pained.

She covered her mouth with one trembling hand, hardly daring to believe it. Tears burned in the corners of her eyes as she buried her head in his shoulder.

Jaime embraced her, but even as she wrapped her arms around his waist, she heard a short, sharp gasp of pain.

Her palm came away from his midsection wet with blood.

"You're hurt," she whispered. "How -"

If he had been injured by the sellsword Bronn, Cersei knew that she would never forgive herself. Her mouth crumpled as she attempted to apply pressure on Jaime's wound to staunch the flow of blood, but it was futile.

"It doesn't matter." Jaime said, putting on a brave front, even though Cersei could see how his face was twisted in pain. Gently, he took her hands in his own. "Come on. We have to get out of here. I know an escape route."

_Escape._

For the first time since she had seen fire and blood rain down from the skies, Cersei truly allowed herself to hope.

With his injuries, Jaime couldn't walk very fast, and he had to lean heavily on Cersei for support as they staggered down the stairs, deep down into the bowels of the Red Keep. Rocks fell from the crumbling ceiling above, some of them just narrowly missing Cersei and Jaime by inches. But Cersei wasn't afraid.

 _I am a lion,_ she chanted to herself, the same mantra that had kept her putting one foot in front of the other during the Walk of Shame. _A lion does not weep._

But she had broken back then, to her eternal shame - broken and ran for the safety of the Red Keep, wishing all the while that Jaime was by her side. But Jaime was with her now, and Cersei knew that they were going to make it.

Cersei wrapped her arm around Jaime's waist as they made their way past the dragon skulls in the basement of the Red Keep. She experienced a momentary flash of vicious, spiteful desire to see the head of the Mad Queen's dragon mounted next to the skulls of his brethren, before her mind cleared and she walked past them without a second look back, clinging tightly to Jaime, and he to her. To what really mattered.

"Just a bit further," Jaime whispered. "A little more."

Finally.

Light.

Weak rays of sunlight streaming in from the exit at the far end of the basement. A passageway which led to a small rocky beach, and beyond that, the wide open sea.

The passageway crumbled behind Jaime and Cersei just as they stepped out of the exit, pieces of heavy rubble raining down to seal it completely.

Cersei gasped, heart pounding at how narrow their escape had been.

It had been so close. But they'd made it.

 

* * *

 

Six months later, with Jaime by her side, Cersei gave birth to a pair of blond-haired twins in Pentos.

Joanna Lannister and Tyrion II Lannister, their little lion cubs.


End file.
